On the way to the computer, I realized that I turn 30 today. This is an important milestone. For some reason, I have been looking forward to this day all year...

Up to this point, my life has been full and educational. I have been around the world and to just about every state in the union. I've gained knowledge in many subjects and met interesting people. Mediocrity aside, I feel wonderful about life and feel fortunate to have seen the things I have, tasted the foods I sampled, smelled the scents that wafted my way, and heard the music of every day life. I look forward to experiencing even more in the years to come. Before I go, I would like to share something. This has been my life's mantra. I have recited it when I was feeling anything but happy. It has helped me realize that nothing can tear me down:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Theodore D. RooseveltCITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC "The Man In The Arena" Speech at the Sorbonne Paris, France April 23, 1910

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"When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack. "Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom's chain: Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain."" -Jack London, The Call of the Wild

You have my congratulations, respect and wishes for many more happy birthdays. HS!

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"I am elite because I am not on welfare. I am elite because I ritually sacrificed my television set and bombed a McDonald's. I am perfect. I'm the REAL Satanist here, and you're just a useless pathetic piece of shit herdling. You disgust me."
--the hopelessly ego-deprived jackass

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"When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack. "Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom's chain: Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain."" -Jack London, The Call of the Wild